Financial Mail’s annual essay competition: The winners

The financial upheaval of the past two years has clearly made its mark on the younger generation, with entries in Financial Mail's annual essay competition showing that teenagers recognise that their future prosperity has been threatened.

The competition, run with investment house Baillie Gifford, asked students aged between 13 and 18: 'Has the recent financial crisis changed the way you think about your future, and if so, how?' It aims to help engage younger people with key money issues and to raise the profile of financial education in schools.

Winner in the 16-18 category was Nicole Sparkes, 17, who is in the lower sixth form at Newstead Wood School for Girls in Orpington, Kent. She lives in Lewisham, south-east London, with parents Georgina, 45, who works for a local authority, and Derek, 46, an electrical engineer, and sister Simone, 14. She is studying for A-levels in maths, further maths, history, chemistry, German and economics, and is considering a career as a development economist.

Stunned: Nicole Sparkes who wins a £500 laptop for her essay

Her essay described how the market crash forced her to reappraise her outlook. She wrote: 'As a child from the age of prosperity, all I have known is economic success... however, I have realised that progress is not inevitable and regress is possible too.'

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Nicole says: 'The topic gripped me. I did a lot of research on websites and asked my classmates what they thought. Then I spent a day of half-term pulling the information together and writing the essay. I was stunned and surprised to be a winner.'

As well as winning a £500 laptop and work experience with Financial Mail, Nicole won for her school £500 and a package of financial books.

Second-prize winners in the 16-18 category were Hasan Qureshi and Harry Burt, both from Colchester Royal Grammar School, Essex, who received mini-laptops. The judges' special prize went to Rob Scott, also from Colchester Royal, who argued that the recession had improved how young people look at their financial future.

Tom McKenna won the 13-15 age group with an essay that discussed whether it would make economic sense in future to go to university. Tom, of Liverpool Blue Coat School, was also angry that his generation might be left to pick up the pieces from the recession.

He wrote: 'I look at banks trying to offload their credit cards on to people on low incomes when their own chairmen won't touch them... and I see a need for change. And I want to help change it.'

Tom, who will be sitting his GCSE exams this summer, wrote the essay when he was 15. He received the letter telling him he was a winner on his 16th birthday last month.

He lives in Allerton, south Liverpool, with brother Benedict, 19, and mum Karen, 49, a barrister. 'I'm interested in a career in finance and the research for the essay confirmed it is such an important area to work in,' he says.

Second prizewinners in this age group were Marco Narajos from Ashby School in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, and George Roberts from Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. The judges' special prize went to Connor MacKay from Samuel Whitbread Community College in Shefford, Bedfordshire, who won first prize in the same category in 2008.